The Northern Hemisphere is getting busy with the start of the harvest, so in this Newsletter edition we are pleased to give you a sneak peek of this season’s first ripe bunches in Mexico and Israel, followed by the latest ARRA events from Brazil and Italy.
Gilberto Salazar Sr. established Videxport company 30 years ago growing top-quality vineyards with extensive plantation of Early Sweet™ and ARRA™ Varieties.
The harvest of Early Sweet and ARRA Honey Pop™ grapes has just begun and as you can see in the photos below, the results are world-class.
Victor Romero, the farm’s technical manager closely follows Grapa’s growing guidelines, expertly adapting it where necessary to suit the farm’s location and micro climate, ultimately leading to these beautiful results
Victor reports: «This is Videxport’s first year of production of ARRA Honey Pop and the crop looks very good». The uniqueness of the ARRA Honey Pop is the ripening time which is about as early as Early Sweet and a week before ARRA Sugar Drop™. Free of shot berries, its grapes are characterized by outstanding eating quality with extreme, delightful crunchiness.
Karl Conrads, Grapasa CEO and ARRA Agent in South America says: «We believe that ARRA Honey Pop is a very good choice for the growers due to its early harvest time. Chilean growers are greatly affected by the drought, so the ability to achieve very good quality grapes, using 50% less water compared to late varieties is a considerable advantage». Karl concludes: «In addition, this variety offers the growers the option to start their season earlier and therefore able to compete with late varieties from earlier areas, such as those from northern Chile or Peru».
Campos Borquez was founded in 1986 by Pablo Borquez, a third-generation farmer from Sonora, Mexico. The company grew into an important agricultural enterprise with high-quality export supply of Asparagus and Grapes.
The harvest of the Early Sweet variety has started and again, this season, the results look excellent. Campo Borquez will also soon be harvesting ARRA Sugar Drop and ARRA Passion Fire™.
Since 2016, RIOblanco Mexico has been growing two leading ARRA varieties: ARRA Passion Fire and ARRA Sugar Drop.
Luis Felipe Montes, General Manager at RIOblanco Mexico reports:» This year we have a new plantation of ARRA Sugar Drop bearing its first production and the fruit looks very good, we will be starting the harvest around the 20th of May». He continues: «We are also very happy with ARRA Passion Fire as we see a very good yield. This production will be the highest boxes per hectare since we planted it and the harvest is planned to start in the last week of May.»
Chen Salomon, owner of Salmor Grapes, located in the Jordan Valley is harvesting his first commercial production of ARRA Honey Pop and ARRA Sugar Drop. Both varieties are grown under greenhouse and this allow the grapes to ripen even earlier.
The ARRA Honey Pop harvest in Salmor Grapes started last Sunday and ARRA Sugar Drop will follow in the coming days.
Chen reports:» I am very happy with the production of ARRA Honey Pop. The variety’s very short growing cycle, productivity and being very low-in-labor, as well as its high level of crunchiness and size, make this the perfect very early variety to grow».
Chen continues: «I was pleasantly surprised to discover how both varieties kept their own characteristics even when grown under greenhouse rather than in the open field and this doesn’t usually happen with other varieties. After the season, I will further adapt the protocol to the greenhouse growing practices in order to obtain an even better crop.»
Click on the video belowto watch ARRA Honey Pop just before harvest at Salmor Grapes
Chen concludes: «ARRA Honey Pop requires almost no labor and ARRA Sugar Drop needs only a few days of work in order to open the bunches. This allowed me to manage the production in the farm with peace of mind and I couldn’t ask for more».
Click on the video to watch ARRA Sugar Drop at Salmor Grapes
While the North Hemisphere is busy harvesting, in Brazil, the Grapa Team was busy delivering post-harvest technical seminars with the objective of improving quality and productivity from one season to the next.
During the first event, in collaboration with Syngenta, the team introduced the ARRA harvest guidelines. Mr. Cristhian Diaz, Commercial and Technical Manager at Coopexvale (one of the largest cooperatives of ARRA producers in Brazil), spoke about Quality Control as well as the various crucial guidelines the packing houses must follow in order to deliver continuous quality fruit to the market.
A second seminar, held by the Grapa Brazil Team, in partnership with Aminoagro an ICL Company, showcased and focused on the results obtained by utilizing different packaging methods with trials made with ARRA YUM!BO. These trials showed that growers following the correct protocol obtained high quality and good shelf life during post-harvest.
Russaika Nascimento from the Grapa Brazil team, reports: «We understand that this exchange of information can help the ARRA growers improve many aspects of their operations. Our main goal is to ensure that the quality of the produce is the best it can be, therefore, these kind of seminars play a key role in achieving this target.»
On May 4-6 2022, AVI represented the ARRA Varieties at Macfrut exhibition in Rimini – Expo Centre, Italy.
Macfrut is a leading trade fair for professionals operating in the national and international fruit and vegetables sector. The growing number of participants (Italian and foreign companies) as well as the wide range of initiatives, aimed at promoting innovation and internationalization all make this an event of great importance.
AVI held meetings with existing and potential European ARRA growers as well as meeting most of the main players of the GDO (Great Distribution Organized – mass retailers). The AVI team reports: «We discussed the grape supply and marketing program for the 2022/23 season with new and existing producers and international companies, ultimately we consider this a truly successful exhibition».
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